Strong children's rights: signature campaign started in Brandenburg!

Strong children's rights: signature campaign started in Brandenburg!

An initiative to anchor children's rights in the Basic Law is currently being pushed forward in Brandenburg. The state working group of children and youth representatives has launched a signature collection that will run until July 4, 2025. The goal is to collect at least 30,000 signatures to force a hearing in the Bundestag. How stadt-brandenburg.de reported, you can sign the petition lists in various institutions such as the Office for Statistics and Elections or the Hohenstücken City Library.

Janne Sophie Engeleiter, Brandenburg's children and youth representative, emphasizes that the special needs and rights of children must be taken more into account in decisions. At the moment, children's rights are not explicitly anchored in the Basic Law, which leads to weak protection in practice. Mayor Steffen Scheller is one of the first supporters of this initiative and emphasizes that the long-term interests of children and young people should always be the focus of all decisions.

Political background

The anchoring of children's rights in the Basic Law was already decided in the coalition agreement between the governing parties of the CDU/CSU and SPD in 2018. This goes back to the international commitment to the 1992 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. For years, the federal government has repeatedly brought forward draft laws to legally enshrine these rights. Loud bmfsfj.de However, a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag and Bundesrat is required for a successful change to the Basic Law.

In January 2021, the Federal Cabinet presented a draft law to supplement Article 6 Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law to the effect that the rights of children must be taken into account in state decisions. Nevertheless, the search for an interparty agreement on the change to the Basic Law failed in spring 2021, which was seen as a setback for children and families during the corona pandemic.

Children's Rights: An Ongoing Struggle

The current discussions on anchoring children's rights are just another chapter in a long-lasting process. Although the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been in force in Germany for over three decades, deficits in its practical implementation remain. Many children and young people still feel that they are not sufficiently included in their concerns. Initiative groups such as the Action Alliance for Children's Rights therefore called for a more comprehensive and concrete draft law that meets the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Via the online platform childrenrights.de also points out the need to give priority to the best interests of the child in all state decisions.

The planned change to the Basic Law could therefore bring about a decisive change in the legal protection of children's rights. It remains to be seen whether the initiatives and public pressure will ultimately bear fruit. A strong signal is already evident in the growing number of supporters and signatories of this important petition for a better future for our children.